


I Promise

by KrzysztofPine



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Abandonment, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern: Still Have Powers, Angst, Brothers, Child Abandonment, Erik has ADHD, Family, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Kid Fic, References to Depression, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2020-12-31 01:17:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21032375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrzysztofPine/pseuds/KrzysztofPine
Summary: Charles will do everything to keep his little brother safe. But sometimes he still gets hurt, despite  Charles' efforts.





	1. Chapter 1

"Erik, get your ass down here!" Charles didn't know how he ended up in this situation. He was standing in front of his parents' old mansion, trying to get his little brother to come down from the roof. He didn't even know what he was doing up there. 

Erik sat down on the edge of the mansion's roof and looked down on his scowling brother. "Why? I didn't do that!". 

Charles raised an eyebrow, "What didn’t you do?" Erik stared down at him. "Okay, one problem at the time, get down now. The roof is not a place for a sixteen-year-old." 

Erik sighed and rolled off the roof. Charles's heart momentarily stopped, his eyes widened. He began to shout his brothers' name when Erik started to float above the bushes, only to fall in them after a few seconds. 

" What is wrong with you! You can't fly, you idiot! This is not your ability! Jesus…" He ran over to his brother and helped him get out of the bushes. Erik began to shake off the leaves and sticks from his clothes, Charles started to clean his hair, because, sticks… sticks everywhere. When he finished cleaning his hair, Charles slapped Erik in the back of the head. 

"Hey! What was that for!?" Erik whined, because yes Erik that was a whine, 

"For being a moron. You could have broken your neck. And what the hell were you doing up there?” Charles wrinkled his nose. "You reek. You are going to shower, right after you explain everything." 

"Okay, first of all, chill out dude, because you are steaming. And I wasn't doing anything, just chilling out." He extended two last words, just for the effect. Charles glared at him. 

Erik started to feel a little weird, "No! Don't go into my head! I will tell!" He grabbed his head and pressed it into his chest. 

Charles smirked. "Well then go on, I'm waiting." He said waving his hand. 

"I-yyy… I wassss…" Erik felt that he was starting to turn red, don't get him wrong, he wasn't embarrassed or anything like that. It's just the way his older brother was staring at him and the knowledge that he was a telepath didn't help, not at all. "I was just trying to play with that paint." 

"You painted the roof?!" Charles screeched. 

"No, I tried it on a paper." Erik said in a 'duh' voice. Charles couldn't help himself, he sighed in relief. That building is decades old, it lived through two world wars and other stuff, but he doesn't think it would stand a chance against a hurricane that is Erik Lehnsherr. 

"Okay, let's get you into shower then dinner." Charles said while putting an arm around Erik's shoulders, leading him in the direction of the doors. 

"But I'm not hungry." Erik groaned and threw his head back against his brother’s arm. 

"I don't care, you are underweight and you need to eat more. You look like a fucking stick." 

_________________________________________________

After a shower, Erik came down to the kitchen and started to boil some water. "Is that my hoodie?" Charles was 100% sure it was his, Erik was literally drowning in it. 

"It's possible.". After he put the pot on the burners, Erik sat down, pulled his legs to his chest and put his forehead on his knees. 

Charles observed him from his place in front of the table and raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?". 

"Sleeping," came the muffled response. 

"But it's only 2 in the afternoon, how long did you stay up last night?" 

Erik turned his head in Charles' direction. "Not long." 

His brother sighed. "Yeah, right. What are you making?" 

"My spaghetti. Pasta, cheese and sauce." Charles looked up just to see a floating pot lid and a container with pasta. The container floated above the pot and put some pasta into it. It floated away and a fork appeared in its place, it stirred the pasta a little and floated down on the countertop." When will the others come back?" Erik asked. 

"They should be back in an hour or two." He knew his brother was lonely and the X-Men team were closer to his age. "You did your homework, right?" 

Erik's eyes widened "Yeah…" He looked like a deer caught in the headlights. 

Charles knew this look way too much "You will do it after dinner. What subject is it?" 

"Polish language." Erik groaned and buried his head in his knees. 

"It can't be hard for you, it's your native language" Charles said in a dry tone. 

"I don't like writing essays, they’re boring. I don't know how to begin, then end it. I'd rather write a story," Erik explained while putting his spaghetti together. He sat down next to Charles and started to play with it. 

"Don’t play with your food." Charles said, side glancing at his brother. He doesn’t like how light his brother is. Erik never ate a lot, even when he was a child. 

”Can I have soda? Pleaseeee.” Erik has the best puppy eyes. They were even worse when he was a toddler, big and blue. He remembers when he saw them for the first time. 

*flashback* 

He was ten years old, walking back to the mansion after school when he saw the basket in front of the gate. Charles started to walk slowly to it when he heard a small cry, it sounded like baby cries. He found himself uncovering covered in snow blanked, his eyes widened. It was a small baby, his or her little face wet from tears. The baby stopped when it felt cool air, then Charles saw the biggest blue eyes he ever saw. On top of the blanket that covered the baby was pinned a small note. He unclipped it and started reading. 

“Dear, whoever found my baby  
I'm so sorry for doing this but I didn't have any choice. Please take care of my little Eryk. You may be my only hope. If you can't care for him please find him a good home. I can't do it  
because he would be in great danger. His full name is Eryk Kostrzewa-Lehnsherr, he was born 13 September 2003, Hel, Poland. There's a possibility that he will be a mutant because my and my husbands' families had at least one mutant in every generation. Please don’t try to find me. 

Thank you, Ewelina K.” 

Charles looked back down at the baby who was staring at him curiously. "Come on Eryk, I will show you to my mom and Raven." He picked up the basket and walked through the gate, he glanced quickly in the direction of the forest and saw a wolf but the moment they made an eye contact it runned away. 

*End of flashback* 

Erik stayed with him, Raven and their mother, becoming the youngest member of their family. Before their mom died he promised her to watch over his younger siblings and fuck, if they didn’t make it a difficult task. “No.” 

"But whyyyy." Erik whined. "You drink too much of that sugary crap, why don't you have water, you need water. You know, more than 60% of the human body is water, in your case it's probably 60% Pepsi." 

“Szmata.” Erik mumbled under his nose. 

“Don’t curse.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy sorry for being gone for so long, I came back with a slightly longer chapter this time hope you like it!  
ALso !TW! for mentions of self harm and suicide attempt! If you are triggered by that plz don't read!  
*22.07.2020*  
~ ENJOY

After dinner, Charles watched through the window at Erik playing with their dog. A cute, female mix of breeds, they found her a few years ago when Erik was 9, she was abandoned in small, wet box by the road and decided to take her in. She and Erik became instant friends. Charles was a little skeptical about Erik's choice of name but in the end, he saw that the name Carrot suited her, for some reason she really likes carrots. 

Charles smiled at the memory of small Erik trying to wash the quickly growing dog, in the end, Charles had to wash both, Erik and Carrot. He returned his attention to them at the big splash, he was meet with the sight of Erik and the dog sitting on the pond. He rolled his eyes and went back to washing the dishes. 

He sensed a familiar mind coming into the kitchen "Hello, Raven! Everything finally under control I suppose?" 

"Yeah, it wasn't really that big of a mess. At least we have that under control not like you" He turned around to look at his smiling sister, raising an eyebrow. 

"And what I don't have under control?" 

"Hmm I don't know, how about The Loch Ness Monster and his dog sidekick" she chuckled looking out of the window, Charles laughed and went back to cleaning. 

"Are all of you alright? No injuries? 

" Pietro has a black eye, but he deserved it" she admitted with a smirk on her face. Charles frowned "What do you mean 'deserved' it" 

"He tried to hit on some secretary and she slapped him" 

"CHARLES!!" 

Charles looked up from his work to see Erik sitting on the lawn "What, Erik!" 

"Do we band-aids? I'm kind of bleeding" Erik asked, holding his foot frowning, Carrot sitting right next to him licking his face whining. 

"Oh for God's sake, what now" Charles scoffed "Don’t move!" 

"Duty calls?" Raven chuckled. 

"Yeah, can you hand me the kit? It's in the cupboard on your right." Charles asked drying his hands with a towel. 

Raven handed him the kit. 

"Thanks, Raven" Charles kissed her on the cheek. 

___________________________

"What have you done now?" 

Erik looked up and smiled at his brother "A rock attacked me, a very sharp rock." 

The sea-green eyes looked at him with such happiness despite the bleeding injury, he can remember when those eyes held only sadness and hopelessness. Charles briefly closed his eyes and pushed the memory away, when he opened his eyes he saw Erik looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“A little slow today, old man?” he joked with a grin, Charles scowled.

“Little shit, okay show this battle wound.” Charles breathed kneeling on the grass “Why did you get into the pond by the way?”

He looked at the pretty deep scratch, nothing serious but deep enough to require band-aid, Charles opened the kit and ruffled through it to find disinfectant wipe and bandages.

“Carrots ball fell into it and I wanted to get it out but she went in after me and we kind of started to splash each other.” he answered “Hey! We have band-aids with Scooby-Doo? I didn’t know!” Erik blurted out “...Can I have those?” 

Charles lowered his head and sighed then looked at Erik with raised eyebrows and smile “And what are you, five?”

At that, the younger brother stuck his tongue out and laughed “I like colorful bandages, they make you think less about the pain and stuff.”

Charles felt the memory surfacing again, instead of thinking about that now, he pushed it down with more force this time and held out the band-aids they have for Erik “Then which one do you want?”

Erik smiled “Of Course, the one with Scooby!” he made it sound like the choice was obvious and Charles should have known that.

“So, Scooby it is.” Charles snorted, he disinfected the wound and put the band-aid on “There! Good as new.” he patted his brother's knee as he got up from the ground, gathering the kit with him.

Erik leaned back on his arms and smirked up at him “You know that I could do all of this myself? I only asked if we have band-aids.”

Charles furrowed his brows “God knows what is in that water and what you touched before, so yeah no way I would let you touch an open wound with those dirty hands.” he commented walking back towards the mansion.

“I’m not a child anymore Charles!” Erik called back at him from the ground with Carrot now trying to lick his face.

“Erik practically everyone would disagree with that statement.” Charles touted, looking over his shoulder to see Erik throw his hands up at the same moment as Carrot jumped on him, resulting to knock him over and cover him with dog kisses, happy that her friend is alright. He continued to walk back toward their home with a small smile on his lips, his brother's happy laughter fading slowly away.

He opened the kitchen door and was immediately meet with Ravens' voice.

“Everything under control now, Nurse Xavier?” she mocked him from her place at the kitchen table.

“Oh shut the fuck up Raven.” he laughed putting the kit away, turning back to see Pietro standing in the entrance, as Raven said there was a dark bruise on his face “Ah, I see you didn’t manage to get the phone number.” 

“It’s not funny!” Pietro whined.

“Well all of us think it is funny Pietro.” Hank snorted walking in with the rest of the team behind him.

“Pff, fuck you.” he huffed and the next thing they know Pietro is outside with Erik and Carrot.

“Coffee anyone?” Charles clapped his hands pushing himself from the countertop.

______________________________________________________________________

After everyone went to bed, well not everyone Erik is still probably up, he always was more of a night person than day one. Charles lied in his bed staring at the ceiling in the dark, the suspended memory from before coming back. He can practically feel the warm and wet blood on his hands-

Charles closed his eyes and took a deep breath trying to calm down, he will always feel guilty for not noticing the signs that his brother needed help. He signed and got up, no need for that now he knows what to look for even if Erik is pretty good at hiding those things despite being like an open book otherwise. Before Charles knows where he is going he is standing before his brother's room, hand up ready to knock. Well, how the hell he got here not noticing will remain a mystery.

He almost jumped out of his skin when the door opened, Erik looked up at him with a frown “Something happened?”

“How did you know-”

“Belt buckle. What are you here for Charles? Not that I don’t want you here or anything, just kind of worried that you showed up at the door at 1 AM, usually you are asleep by now so I think you get why I’m worried.”

Charles barely keeps up with what Erik was saying, he always speaks so fast and also can’t stay still, damn ADHD.

“Charles?”

He sighed and started with a small smile “Nothing happened, kid. Just my stupid mind.”

“Oh, if you can’t sleep you can play cards with me if you want.” Erik gestured with a thumb at his room behind him, tilting his head to the side.

Charles gave a little laugh at his brother's expression “The only game you know is colors.”

“Well you can teach me poker, you promised, remember?” he couldn’t say no to those eyes, to be honest, he never could.

“Okay”

At that Erik gave him a happy ‘yes!’ tugging him into his room.

It took a while to teach Erik the game, his attention span is REALLY short but they finally are able to play a decent game with monopoly money Erik has from their old version of the board game.

“Hey, Charles?”

“Hmmm?” Charles looked up from his cards to look at his brother.

“Can you tell me the reason why you are here? No jumping around the subject this time.” 

Charles put down his cards and rubbed his face with his right palm “ Just some memories surfacing out of nowhere, I kind of feel on the edge since the morning.”

Erik looked at him with a tilted head and a frown “What memories?”

He looked at his younger brother with shiny eyes “Erik, promise me that you will always talk to me if something happens or if you feel like that again, please.”

At that Erik got up and walked up to his brother, sitting down and leaning against him with his head on Charles’ collarbone. Charles immediately embraced him tucking his face in Erik's hair.

“I’m sorry” he heard Erik whisper hugging him tighter.

“Don’t apologize, that wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t help it, I’M sorry that I didn’t notice anything until it was almost too late.” he took Eriks left arm and gazed at the mass of little, thin lines and a big vertical one on his slim forearm before tucking his face back into his brother's hair hugging him back.

“It was my decision, one that I’m regretting right now. But back then it felt like the only way out, I just wanted to stop hurting.” Charles heard the muffled voice.

“Just promise me you will talk to me if you ever feel like that ever again, okay?”

“Okej” came mumbled answer.

Charles kissed the top of Erik's head “I don’t think I heard you being so tired before at” he looked up at the old childish clock “Half-past two.”

“Oj cicho, I want to ask you something, but it’s embarrassing.”

“Come one, I swear I won’t laugh.”

“Can I sleep with you tonight? And can we get Carrot too?”

He laughed at that “I wanted to ask you the same, but we sleep in my bed yours is too damn small.”

“With Carrot?”

Charles sighed, but this time with a smile “Yes, with Carrot.”

Once they were laying in Charles’ bed with Carrot at their feet and Erik's head tucked under his chin, Charles finally felt at ease since morning, with his brother safely in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
Oj cicho - oh quiet  
So do you want to hear the rest of the history? Leave any feedbacks in the comments and don’t forget to leave kudos :3

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you liked it and if I should continue it in the comments, bye <3


End file.
